Egypt court orders execution of 8 over terror

CAIRO: An Egyptian military court ordered the execution of eight suspect terrorists over involvement in deadly attacks against the Egyptian armed forces, state-run news website reported.

The military court in Ismailia province northeast of Cairo also sentenced 32 other defendants to 25 years in jail and two defendants to 15 years in prison while it acquitted another two of the charges of killing 14 soldiers and attempting to kill 16 others in terror operations.

The defendants are believed to be members a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group. The verdicts, which have been issued in absentia, came a few days after the Egyptian police announced killing 19 militants in a shootout in Upper Egypt’s province of Minya, where they are believed to have carried out the terrorist attack that left at least seven Copts dead on Friday.

Egypt has been facing terrorist activities that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, since the popular-backed military removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013.

An IS-affiliated Sinai-based group calling itself “Wilayat Sinai” (Sinai state or province) claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian security forces have so far killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country’s anti-terror war declared by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi’s ouster.